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Library 101

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June 20, 2006

Research at The Claremont Colleges

Tools

Libraries' Website - http://libraries.claremont.edu
Links to information about the libraries' services and tools - a good place to start your research, especially if you are searching from off campus. some of the most useful tools are:

  • Indexing Databases - these databases index scholarly and peer reviewed literature at the subject level
  • Blais - Blais is our catalog of items we own or have access to in Claremont - http://blais.claremont.edu Blais differs from the subject indexing databases mentioned above in that those databases are specific to bodies of literature, and Blais is specific to us. You must work between the two in order to see what we have. (See What is Blais? for more information).
  • Ejournals portal - these are our online journals. don't see your title here? check for print in Blais!
  • Interlibrary Loan (under 'getting materials not at Claremont') - awesome shared borrowing, and great for getting journal articles we dont have. (See What is ILL? for more information)
  • Link+ - from Blais, click on the 'link+' image to the right of the results screen to query the Link+ catalog. Link+ is great for getting books of all sorts that we either don't own or are checked out. (See What is Link+? for more information)

Research Concepts

Scholarly Literature & Peer Review - When doing research at the academic level, the quality of information sources is important. You want to rely on information that has undergone a review process, where a specialist has reviewed and approved the content prior to publication. The indexing databases mentioned above point to such literature. Most peer reviewed content is not freely available online.

Keyword vs. Subject Searching - Keyword searching has become the norm - toss your keywords into your search field, like Google, and go. However, Keyword searching is just one avenue into literature, and controlled vocabulary, or subject headings, are powerful search options as well. Subject searching will capture content indexed under the subject in question, irrespective of chosen keywords. When listing terms to search, think of synonyms, and broader and narrower terms for context and diverse search options. In indexing databases or in Blais, note any relevant keywords, subject headings, descriptors, &c (usually located towards the bottom of the record) for additional vocabulary to use.

Citation Searching - my favorite trick! Take note of the bibliographies to relevant materials, and use Web of Science or Google Scholar to see who is citing the articles you really like. Citation searching is also great fun to track the development of an idea over time.

Tips

  • Research is a process - read, think and assess
  • Budget lots of time to immerse yourself in the concept - this isn't about finding enough sources as much as it is about gaining a thorough knowledge of the topic and following through with your train of thought on it.
  • Use multiple windows/tabs - database, Blais, website, paper, email... keep information in one window while working in another. Few things suck more than losing those perfect search results thanks to 'postdata'.
  • Create a log for your research project, and keep track of effective searches, databases used, results, successful keywords and terms, &c

Getting Materials

Now that you've done all this searching in 'The Literature', there's that pesky 'getting' process to deal with. In the sciences, we're lucky in that most of our stuff is directly linked from our indexing databases. However, not everything is online, or linked. If you do not see a download option, toss the source title into Blais to see if we own the print. Remember, Blais doesn't know what an article is, so you must use the title of the source, like the journal title or conference proceedings title. Pay attention to the libraries' holdings; you want to make sure we actually have that volume from 1969 before you head over to dig around in the collection.

Got Questions?

Find me. : ) Here's how:

  • email - jez @ hmc.edu
  • send me an IM
    • Yahoo!/MSN - jezmynne
    • AIM - bad8sslibrarian

  • Drop by Sprague, but check my calendar, first.

Posted to library 101 by jez at June 20, 2006 01:39 PM